First modification:
Washington (AFP) – The great American scientist EO Wilson, an expert on ants and known as “Darwin’s natural heir,” died at the age of 92, according to the foundation that bears his name.
Edward Osborne Wilson, who taught at Harvard University for decades, wrote dozens of books, two of which won him Pulitzer Prizes: the first in 1978 for ‘On Human Nature’, the second in 1990 for ‘The Ants’ .
The scientist, who died in Massachusetts on Sunday, “dedicated his life to studying the natural world and inspiring others to care for it as he did,” the foundation noted.
The magazine ‘Time’ highlighted that he had “one of the great scientific careers of the 20th century” by highlighting his work on mapping the social behavior of ants, through which he showed that their colonies communicated through a system of pheromones.
But who is considered the founding father of sociobiology also generated a wave of criticism at the time after suggesting in one of his books that humans behave largely according to principles written in their genes.
The entomologist is still highly respected. Scientist Steven Pinker mourned the death of a “great scientist” on Monday. “We disagreed on some things, but that did not affect his generosity and willingness to talk,” he tweeted.
.